Miami Marlins Find Success With Shuffled Batting Lineup

By Thomas Emerick

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The 2013 Miami Marlins watch last season’s high-profile debacle grow smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror, and this process can accelerate greatly if the recent lineup changes enacted by manager Mike Redmond continue to show dividends in spring training down in Jupiter, Fla.

Miami doled a dominating performance against the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend, beating down the 2011 champs 6-0 and showing that this year’s Miami offense could outshine the much more high-profile group of 2012. The exhibition win featured a new-look top of the lineup leading off with Juan Pierre then following with Placido Polanco and Giancarlo Stanton.

“There’s a lot of things that we’re looking at,” Redmond said of his lineup choices, via The Miami Herald. “We don’t just fire it together and hope it all works out.

“We’re probably going to have to rely more on situational hitting and maybe some hit-and-runs, but we also have guys like [Donovan] Solano and Polanco who can hit behind runners,” he said. “They’re able to hit through that hole, they’re able to pull balls, and they don’t strike out a lot.”

The Marlins made 2013 look especially bleak back in November when they completed a salary-dump trade that sent away shortstop Jose Reyes, pitchers Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, outfielder Emilio Bonifacio and catcher John Buck for seven players that ostensibly were brought in for the pure sake of having smaller contracts: infielders Adeiny Hechavarria and Yunel Escobar, outfielder Jake Marisnick, catcher Jeff Mathis and pitchers Henderson Alvarez, Justin Nicolino and Anthony DeSclafani.

Thomas Emerick is a Senior Writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasEmerick, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google